Southern Bastards Volume 1: Here Was a Man

Earl Tubb is an angry old man with a very big stick.Euless Boss is a high school football coach with no more room in his office fortrophies and no more room underneath the bleachers for burying bodies. Andthey're just two of the folks you'll meet in Castor County, Alabama, home ofBoss BBQ, the state champion Runnin' Rebs and more bastards than you've everseen!

Whatdoes old Earl Tubb do when he returns home to Craw County, Ala., only to findthe place a veritable criminal fiefdom run by Euless Boss, the local high schoolfootball coach? Why, pick up the stick helpfully cleaved by lightning from atree growing out of his daddy's grave and start meting out justice just like hisfather, the old sheriff, did. In the cleaning-up-the-dirty-old-townSouthern-fried pulper, writer Aaron (Scalped) and artist Jason Latour (DjangoUnchained) spread around no more story than is absolutely necessary, and most ofit involves people being at the wrong end of a stick, baseball bat, or even (inan early fight scene) a deep-fryer basket. Both Jasons hail from the South, asthey discuss in a particularly bighearted introduction, and so likely feelunencumbered by concerns about overdosing on clichés. Thus, thehigh-impact pages are strewn with bruising high school football, sweet tea,barbecue, trucker caps, and snarling rednecks. The story, in which Tubb clobbershis way through throngs of underlings to get at Boss, is no more complicatedthan a redo of Walking Tall. But there's a thread of something deeper, bloodier,and more resonant that often transcends the usual psychotic-redneck shtick,aided in no small part by Latour's spare, elegant art. - PublishersWeekly


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